A decade after his presidential aspirations ended with a hair-raising scream, Howard Dean is making noise about running again in 2016.

It’s eliciting more than a few guffaws out of Washington. But Dean backers say he could be the one laughing last.

The ex-Vermont governor-turned-liberal pundit was back in Iowa in August giving a talk to labor activists. He’s heading to New Hampshire soon to deliver a speech about health care. And as if on cue, Dean will tell anyone who asks that Hillary Clinton is bound to face a primary challenge if she runs — not him, necessarily, though feel free to speculate — but someone.

Whether these are the moves of someone seriously mulling another national campaign or looking to keep himself in the political conversation isn’t totally apparent. The smart money seems to be on the latter, especially since Dean says he’s backing Clinton at the moment.

But if the goal is to get people talking, the onetime voice of the anti-war left is once again proving to be quite adept — even if he’s prompting some eye-rolling in Washington among those who remember the spectacular collapse of his last campaign all too well.

“I don’t think he’ll do it, and I think it would be very much a niche candidacy and niche candidacies don’t win nominations,” said Bob Shrum, who ran John Kerry’s come-from-behind candidacy against Dean in the 2004 nomination process. “I think he’s too smart and sensible.”

“I just don’t see an urge right now within the party to find someone else,” said Joe Trippi, who helmed Dean’s campaign that year. Dean, he added, is one of the few people who could spark such a candidacy.

Indeed, it’s not clear that there would be room for a serious alternative to Clinton – or whether Dean, who went on to become the Democratic National Committee chairman during the party’s out-of-power years and who is now a frequent presence on TV, will ultimately pull the trigger.

“The truth is I’m not ready to get into all of that yet,” Dean told POLITICO in a recent interview, insisting it is “too early” to talk about another campaign. “At this point I’m looking at supporting Hillary … so none of those questions can be answered.”

Still, he added of the media: “I think they’re all having fun with it, as I knew they would. “The press, they love these stories. … I knew very well that this would cause a big stir.”

Calling out the press has been something of a hallmark for Dean, since he felt the press turned on him during his 2003 run. The bulk of the negativity came after his infamous “scream” into a microphone on Iowa Caucuses night, when he came in a dismal third, after being the frontrunner for much of the year. He rode a wave of anti-war sentiment that appealed to young voters, but many of them were unregistered or were too young to vote.

“It’s great to be back,” Dean recently told a group of union workers in Iowa, in his first appearance there since the scream heard ‘round the world. “I promise not to list any states,” he deadpanned.

Several Democratic strategists, who didn’t want to be quoted on the record, scoffed at Dean’s latest moves.

One veteran Democrat said the notion of someone running for president to promote a book deal or get a TV show has always seemed implausible, but “in this case I’m more sympathetic to that [idea] than other times.”

A number of operatives agree with Dean that Clinton would face a primary challenge of some kind if she runs. But her left flank is far less exposed now than it was four years ago, when the Democratic base suffered from deep Clinton fatigue and remained outraged over her vote authorizing the Iraq war. There is far less resistance to her among a Democratic base that spurned her for Barack Obama in 2008, in part because of disappointment with the current president.

“I don’t think Howard Dean is serious about a run, and he certainly wouldn’t have the traction today that he did back in 2003. It’s a much different Democratic Party today, one that is no longer bereft of voices from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party,” said Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas in an interview.

“Clinton is also a different politician today than she was back in 2007, and there is certainly a growing, and justified, desire by women for a female nominee. And I’ve got to say, if not Clinton, there are several other women that could mount credible challenges in her stead. Dean was seen as a historic figure in 2003, breaking the mold of a party gone bad. Today he is history, fondly remembered for his role in helping revitalize the party.”

Still, the anti-war sentiment that’s been resurgent amid President Obama’s contorted push for limited military action in Syria is a reminder of where Dean’s base of support was within the party.

His campaign, in large measure thanks to Trippi, presaged the social media movement that Barack Obama successfully rode in 2008. He was seen as a champion of gay rights after signing a bill as governor legalizing civil unions. (Dean detractors say he was not the decisive voice on gay rights he has been made out to be, but his supporters give him enormous credit.)

“All [people] remember is the scream,” said Ethan Geto, a New York lobbyist who ran Dean’s effort in the state and was a key leader of his fundraising among gay donors. “That was the most unfair thing amongst many.”

Geto was referring to Diane Sawyer’s reexamination of the scream on ABC News. She pointed out that it sounded much worse to viewers at home — Dean appeared unhinged as he yelled, WWE-style, a succession of states he planned to barnstorm — than those in the room because the microphone he was handed was designed to filter out background noise.

“He’d have to overcome a lot of unfortunate misperceptions,” Geto added, saying that for years he’s wanted Hillary Clinton to run but that Dean “deserves to be heard. He’s a very legitimate and intelligent voice.”

One Democrat who was close to Dean when he was at the DNC was blunter: “I don’t think he’ll do this and I don’t think he should, but anybody who underestimates Howard Dean is a fool.”

Dean does have some things going for him. The outside group he helped found, Democracy for America, has remained active at the grassroots level, including in legislative fights in Iowa and New Hampshire. His idea for a 50-state strategy while he was the national party chair has also been credited as a precursor to Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Yet Dean would also have some major liabilities, include a lack of deep ties within the party — starting with the Clintons, who tacitly backed former General Wes Clark’s candidacy as a stop-Dean effort in 2003. In fact, it was Dean’s tenure at the DNC that sparked an outside effort, led by Clinton ally Harold Ickes, to create a voter database called Catalist. It was a model of sorts for what the Crossroads groups, co-founded by Karl Rove, became to the Republican National Committee.

Clinton allies remain disdainful of Dean, seeing him as a gadfly and a nuisance.

Most of Dean’s former advisers have gone on to other work, and much of the party is waiting to see what Clinton does.

“I’m one of those who thinks that she’s formidable and I … expect if she wants the nomination I think she’s going to get it and I think she’s going to cast a large shadow over the field,” said Trippi, who also made clear he is not looking to run another presidential campaign.

“I think actually Hillary’s probably the only person I might go work for,” he said. “I just don’t see an urge right now within the party to find someone else.”